To: Detroit/Seattle
Workers' Voice mailing list
November 14, 2021
by Joseph Green, Detroit Workers’ Voice
On Friday October 22 the Israeli Minister of Defense Benny Gantz banned six major Palestinian NGOs as “terrorists”. This allows the Israeli government to suppress the organizations from working in Israel; the Israeli police could “raid the groups’ offices, seize assets, arrest employees, and criminalize funding and expressions of support” (1). Then on November 7, the Israeli government extended this order to the West Bank as well. (2)
This is another step toward silencing any criticism of the growing right-wing chauvinist wave in Israel and suppressing any independent Palestinian action or expression of support for Palestinian rights. The immediate purpose of these bans may be to prevent these organizations from giving evidence to the International Criminal Court, which began an investigation in March of possible Israeli war crimes in the occupied territories. But it is also another major step in criminalizing any criticism of the oppression of the Palestinian people, any opposition to Israeli apartheid, and to stop it no matter where it is expressed, inside Israel or the occupied territories or around the world. Indeed, it criminalizes not just the six groups, but anyone who expresses similar views.
The Israeli government claimed to have secret evidence that connected these organizations to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which has an armed wing. But there is no public evidence, and even the UN doesn’t believe this. The Israeli government opposes any type of support for Palestinian rights, whether revolutionary, reformist, terrorist, Islamist, violent, peaceful, middle-class or working-class, Arab or Jewish, it’s all the same to the Israeli government.
The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories (B’Tselem) is not a revolutionary organization, and believes in world bourgeois international organizations, but it has sternly denounced these bans, declaring that
“Over the years, Israel has consistently framed any
Palestinian move that was not a surrender to apartheid and occupation
as ‘terrorism.’ Appealing to the International Criminal Court? Legal
terrorism. Enlisting the UN? Diplomatic terrorism. Calling for a
consumer boycott? Financial terrorism. Protesting? Popular terrorism.
Israel may try to portray fighting for freedom as terrorism, but it
takes one to know one.”
The six banned organizations are
Below we reprint the full statement from B’Tselem, as well as the the front page ad in the major Israeli newspaper Haartz taken out by opponents of these bans.
(1) “Israel designates 6 Palestinian human right groups as.terrorist organizations", Associated Press, October 23, 2021.
(2) “Israeli military deauthorization of Palestine NGOs, ‘deepens concern’ of UN agencies”, UN News, November 9, 2021.
Last Friday [October 22], Israel’s new government crossed a line that no Israeli government has dared cross before, designating six Palestinian civil society organizations “terrorist organizations.” The shameful declaration says nothing about these organizations – but speaks volumes about the violence, brutality and arrogance the Israeli regime has been routinely employing against Palestinians for decades.
B’Tselem stands in solidarity with our Palestinian colleagues. We are proud of our joint work over the years and of our shared struggle against the apartheid regime and the occupation. One of the newly-outlawed groups is the oldest Palestinian human rights organization, Al-Haq, which was established more than 40 years ago. Al-Haq and B’Tselem have won several international awards together. In 2018, the Israeli government tried to thwart our joint reception of the French Republic Human Rights Award, using lies similar to those being voiced now. Despite the lies, the award was granted. Despite the threats, our work will continue.
This morning, B’Tselem and more than 20 Israeli civil society organizations ran a front-page ad in the Haaretz daily stating the obvious: criminalizing human rights organizations is a cowardly act that is characteristic of oppressive authoritarian regimes.
The Israeli apartheid regime has sweeping powers when it comes to running the lives of its Palestinian subjects. It does not hesitate to use these powers to prevent Palestinians from exposing its actions, from demanding accountability and from lobbying the international community. The regime is now using these powers to try and shut down human rights organizations – yet again citing “classified evidence.” The minister of defense may have signed the order this time, but the responsibility, and the disgrace, lie with the entire government – with every single minister and with all the parties to the coalition.
Over the years, Israel has consistently framed any Palestinian move that was not a surrender to apartheid and occupation as “terrorism.” Appealing to the International Criminal Court? Legal terrorism. Enlisting the UN? Diplomatic terrorism. Calling for a consumer boycott? Financial terrorism. Protesting? Popular terrorism. Israel may try to portray fighting for freedom as terrorism, but it takes one to know one.
Whatever the outcome of the recent declaration, one thing is clear: the Palestinian struggle for human rights, liberty and equality will continue and B’Tselem will continue to stand in solidarity with our Palestinian colleagues – until the apartheid is abolished.
Hagai El-Ad, Executive Director <>
Below is the text of a front-page ad in Haaretz, which is a joint statement from over two dozen Israeli human rights organizations:
The Minister of Defense’s designation of prominent Palestinian civil society organizations, among them our colleagues in the Palestinian human right community, as terrorist organizations, is a draconian measure that criminalizes criticial human rights work. Documentation, advocacy, and legal aid are fundamental activities for the protection of human rights worldwide. Criminalizing such work is an act of cowardice, characteristic of repressive authoritarian regimes. Civil society and human rights defenders must be protected. We stand in solidarity with our Palestinian colleagues, and call on members of the Israeli government and the international community to oppose this decision unequivocally.
It was signed by the following groups:
Adalah, Akevot Institute for Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Research, B’Tselem, Bimkon - Planners for Planning Rights, Breaking the Silence, Combatants for Peace, Gisha, HaMoked - Center for the Defence of the Individual, Haqel - Jews and Arabs In Defense of Human Rights, Human Rights Defenders Fund, Ir Amim, Kav LaOved - Workers’ Hotline, Kerem Navot, Machsom (Checkpoint) Watch, Mothers Against Violence, Parents Against Child Detention, Peace Now, Physicians for Human Rights Israel, Rabbis for Human Rights, Standing together, The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, Yesh Din - Volunteers for Human Rights, Zazim - Community Action \
The ad is taken from https://www.btselem.org/node/213641, emphasis as in the original)
The ad ended with the following note: In accordance with Israeli legislation aimed to delegitimize human rights organizations, we are required to state that some of the signatories receive most of their funds from ‘foreign state entities’.
B’Tselem’s website added:
“In compliance with the law passed by the Israeli Knesset that seeks to equate the receipt of international funding with disloyalty, please note that B’Tselem was 69% funded by foreign state entities in 2019. These entities are listed on the website of the Israeli Registrar of Associations and elsewhere. Be that as it may, we remain loyal to the struggle for human rights, freedom and democracy, and to an end to the occupation.”
B’Tselem states its standpoint as that “Israel’s regime of apartheid and occupation is inextricably bound up in human rights violations. B’Tselem strives to end this regime, as that is the only way forward to a future in which human rights, democracy, liberty and equality are ensured to all people, both Palestinian and Israeli, living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. <>
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